1/08/2004 @ 9:00AM

Forbes' Faberge Egg Collection Up For Auction

The largest private collection of Fabergé Imperial Easter Eggs is to go under the hammer in April. One piece, The Coronation Egg, presented by Tsar Nicholas II to his wife at Easter 1897, would be the most expensive piece of decorative art to be sold at auction if it realizes the upper end of its estimated sales range of $18 million to $24 million.

The pieces all come from the Forbes Collection, owned by the Forbes family, publishers of this Web site.

The Eggs were first commissioned from the House of Fabergé by Tsar Alexander III in 1885 as an Easter gift to his wife. The tradition was continued by his son, Tsar Nicholas II, and the pieces have become a byword for treasures of rarity and value. Click here to see pictures of the nine Imperial Easter eggs.

The Forbes collection of Fabergé Eggs was started by Malcolm S. Forbes, the late father of the present generation of owners. In announcing the auction, the family said: “The Fabergé Collection was one of the great passions of our father’s life. The acquisitions, the auctions and its assembly were extraordinary adventures for all of us.

“For the past 14 years, since his death, we have continued to share this wonderful Collection with the public in the Forbes Galleries and in shows around the world. As our father said in his book, More Than I Dreamed: A Lifetime of Collecting, ‘I’ve often told my children I hope that, if they decide to be done with one of the collections, they will put it back on the auction block so that other people can have the same vast fun and excitement that we did in amassing it.’ The family has now decided it is time for us to make this unique treasure trove available to other collectors so they may have the thrill of owning a rare and exquisite work of Fabergé . Also, the sale will allow each of us to pursue our own individual interests, something our family has always valued.”

There are 50 Imperial Easter Eggs in the world, including the nine owned by the Forbes family. Ten are in the Moscow Kremlin Collection; five are at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Va.; Britain’s Queen Elizabeth owns three. Others are in the United States, Switzerland and Monaco. The whereabouts of eight is unknown.

The Forbes auction, which will include 180 other Fabergé pieces from the family’s collection, will be conducted by Sotheby’s on April 20 and 21 in New York. A presale public exhibition opens on April 12.